We celebrate National Poetry Month every year in April. This is a time to bring words to life through special experiences, projects, and celebrations with your students and school community. I love using art, writing, music, acting, and more to teach children about poetry and inspire them to be poets, too. I also love to think of ways to tie different subjects such as science, math, and history into Poetry Month and poetic opportunities throughout the year.

April is the perfect time to bring focus to creativity and writing! In April, there are several focus areas that highlight the importance of developing literacy skills and engaging in ongoing learning and creating.

As you walk into many school libraries, you will see multiple spaces set up engaging students in different types of independent and self-directed learning. These are called learning centers and are used within libraries and classrooms in a variety of ways. They can be used to teach skills, as enrichment, to explore, and as a place to cultivate individual interests.

How do you fit math in reading and writing activities? As an elementary school teacher, I worked with the same group of students throughout the day to teach a variety of subject areas. To make the most of our time together, I made lots of cross-curricular connections. So if you are looking for ideas on how to inject math in reading activities, you’ve come to the right place.

Especially at this time of the year when school schedules can become challenging with spring activities, testing and daily routines, focusing on SEL, self-care and self-love is essential. More importantly, we need to help students develop habits that enable them to focus on their well-being and develop the skills needed to work through challenges and deal with emotions. We need to foster the development of practices and behaviors that will promote emotional, mental and physical health.

As educational hardware and software improves, technology-rich classrooms are more and more common. However, moving beyond a technology-rich classroom is a classroom using blended learning. Blended learning leverages educational technology, like PebbleGo, to combine face-to-face instruction with online learning. There are many different models and approaches to integrating blended learning into an elementary classroom, but all models involve some sort of online component.

To boost engagement and student confidence, I started to offer a variety of choices in the types of activities and projects that we were doing in our classroom. Choosing methods and tools that provide something for each student is a great way to boost engagement and excitement for learning!

Can you boost student literacy skills in the science classroom? During your next science lesson, there are plenty of ways to incorporate reading and writing activities. From providing time for students to read independently to exploring new vocabulary together, you can integrate literacy skills throughout the school day.

During February, we take time to observe Black History Month, which is an annual celebration of the achievements and contributions of African Americans throughout history. To celebrate Black History Month, there are a variety of activities that we can do in our classrooms to help students to develop greater awareness and understanding of its importance.